The Great Buddha+

Synopsis

Pickle is a night security guard at a bronze statue factory. His colleague, Belly Bottom, works as a recycling collector during the day, and Pickle's biggest pleasure in life is flicking through the porn magazines Belly Bottom collects in the small hours in the security room. Having late night snacks and watching television are an integral part of their dull lives. One day when the television is broken, their lives are changed forever. The story involves gods, the middle-aged men's sexual desire and the conversation between ghosts and humans. Maybe the audience will find it preposterous, but isn't life itself a farce?

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A deceptively simple film that contains layers of anger and melancholy when you really begin to parse it, Huang Hsin-yao's The Great Buddha+ certainly satisfies on the level of bawdy satire. Thre really is, in fact, a "great Buddha," a giant statue that lords over the action in scornful silence. The main characters, Pickle (Cres Chuang) and Belly Button (Bamboo Chen) are night workers at a foundry that fabricates giant metal Buddhas. (Well, Belly Button is a scrapper who's mostly just hanging around.) But the factory is controlled by local gangster Kevin Huang (Leon Dai), who uses the outfit as a base for his less-than-savory operations.

The director breaks in quite often to provide rueful explanatory voiceover in a…

A smart, uproaring black comedy that decidedly breaks the narrative strand into a superbly crafted narrative device where the director spells out everything for you. Yet, The Great Buddha+ manages to keep the social critique so concretely bleak and rigid that hearsays would simply skim it for it serves a delicious voyeuristic gaze at the never-in-concern higher class literally snatching color out of the black and white days of the lower class.

Huang Hsin-Yao is a new voice in independent Taiwanese cinema, and his first narrative feature–an adaptation of his short film The Great Buddha–carries itself with all of the vitriol that one would expect from somebody angry at the state of the Taiwanese film industry and government. This is apparent from the outset of The Great Buddha+, when Huang speaks to the audience as the credits roll, speaking harshly about the producers and delivering a personal statement. This anger remains throughout–a character named after the producer that Huang is particularly dissatisfied with is even killed off in a darkly humorous manner.

The film centers on a community of vagrant Taiwanese laborers. Pickle (portrayed in a…

the director explained that this film is called The Great Buddha+ because it's a bigger version of his previous short film The Great Buddha - the same way an iPhone 6+ is a bigger version of an iPhone 6

Reminiscent of a Coeh movie, with some Kevin Smith mixed in. It’s not hard to see someone saying that this is a whole lot of nothing but there is a good chunk of things to chew on during the movie if you are willing to buy into what is happening, or not happening in many cases. Many of the major plot events are handled in a very subdued manner but it is in its handling that their inprotance is highlighted. Contains a great cast of colorful characters and is fully embraced with its Taiwanese culture. Huang Hsin-yao might he one to keep an eye on going forward.

The Great Buddha+ is a brilliant piece of debut by Huang Hsin-yao. This is an extension of his short film The Great Buddha which came in 2014. The film touches so many issues starting from politics to religion and the divide between the rich and the poor. But how ever serious these topics may sound, the satire in the film makes it a dark comedy film.

The film starts with a message from the film maker where he talks the film industry and also tell us that he will be giving some messages throughout the film. The film starts with a funeral service of someone. The deceased person’s identity is unknown. Then we see a factory which makes Buddha statues…

It's a good touch when they actually decided to use black & white. Because it creates this much sincere feels towards the mediocre day-to-day life of the main characters. Because i don't think i'd care as much if the film were in colour. Imagine how distracting it might feel.

there's somewhat lots of hidden metaphor that gives you this bittersweet feeling. it was delivered nicely.

Unfortunately, i HATE the narration so much. it breaks the fluidity of the film.